– UNDEFEATED AND HUNGRY

by Mick Hammond – MMAWeekly.com
A firm argument could be made for the fact that Jason Black may be the best fighter to have not gotten his shot at the major MMA organizations. With an overall record of 22-0-1, with wins over UFC vets Ivan Menjivar, Gideon Ray, and Keith Wisniewski, Black appeared to be well on his way until he surprised everyone and went into semi-retirement in 2004.

After taking a year off, Black returned triumphantly last October in the Extreme Challenge organization and now looks poised to finally make his big run. Shortly before Black was to step on the scales for his fight this Friday in King of the Cage against Shonie Carter, Jason discussed his return to action and what he has in store for this year.

“They’re going pretty good,” said Black of his comeback efforts. “It was only a year off, which I realize is a long time, but I wasn’t fighting a lot at the time anyway, maybe twice a year. Stuff wasn’t coming up worth training for, wasn’t any use spinning my wheels doing nothing. A year was nice, maybe should have been longer, maybe not, we’ll see Friday.”

When asked if there was any difficulty making his return after a year away from fighting, Jason responded, “I felt fine. I still worked out, I mean I work out more in my off time as much as a lot of people do when they’re training for a fight, so it was nothing.”

As for his upcoming fight less than 24 hours away against crafty veteran Shonie Carter, Black knows he has to be ready for anything. Over his career Carter has fought just about everywhere against every style of fighter, and Jason knows that he can’t underestimate Shonie.

“I’m trying not to expect anything because he does everything,” explained Black. “You can’t know what he’s going to do, it’s impossible, he does all sorts of crazy stuff and he does normal stuff and you don’t know which is next. I plan on going out there with no gameplan – never do – just going to go balls to the wall and I expect him to do the same and see what happens.”

If all goes well against Carter, Jason is slated to finally make his major MMA debut in just a couple short months. “I’m supposed to go to Bushido in April. I don’t know if Friday night either way would effect it. I just take what they give me, as long as it fits in my schedule. I have a full-time job, so I don’t take fights on a week’s notice if I have to travel to Japan or something. If they give me notice I can take time off my job and go.”

Black continued, “I’m not looking to go over there and be a flash in the pan. The only thing I don’t like going over there is that I have to cut to 160lbs, and they’re not consistent with telling you, you have a fight and sticking with it. They might cancel it right before and if I cut down from to 160 from 185 it’s not going to make me a very happy camper, but it’s their show they can do whatever they want. I have no problem if all my fights the rest of my career are over there, or if I don’t have a fight over there. Hopefully at least I get to go over there, corner someone, and maybe enjoy the scenery.”

Jason closed out the conversation by reiterating the fact that while he has a steady job and has bigger MMA opportunities coming, there’s always room for more support. “I wish I had sponsors to thank, right now we’re waiting on a couple of companies to see what they’re going to do, but as of the moment I don’t have any sponsors. So I’d guess I’d like to say I’d like some sponsors, I’m more than willing to wear anyone’s stuff, so stop being a fan and start being a supporter.”